Walnut Fougasse: Rose's Bread Bible Bakers

                                              walnut fougasse 

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Not only have I mucked up the order of baking, the walnut fougasse is supposed to be the bake for March, I've used the wrong flour. I used strong (bread flour) when it was plain (all purpose) that was called for. Still a testament to Rose's 'The Bread Bible' recipe that I still ended up with delicious crisp, yet chewy, walnut studded bread. 

Fogasse: the French cousin of the focaccia, often slashed to resemble an ear of wheat, I loved this bread, reminded me of a pretzel focaccia cross. 

The bread today uses walnut oil. One of my favourite ever oils with it's fantastic deep nutty flavour perfect for salad dressings, toss through pasta and as a finishing oil. 

The bread was started with flour and yeast that were whisked together, salt was added and whisked in. 

I added my own fresh sage and lemon zest, the backyard lemon tree leads to lemon being in umm, just about everything. Lemon gives a faux sour dough quality to the bread too. 

The lemon zest and sage were whisked in. 

Scalded milk and a few tablespoons of walnut oil are added, first mixed to rough dough and then kneaded by dough hook fitted mixer or hand until you have an elastic and just barely sticky dough.

You need coarsely broken walnuts at this stage. 

The walnuts are incorporated by hand. 

The dough formed into a ball is then coated in more walnut oil and goes off the rise for around an hour. 

The dough is turned out, more walnut oil is added and again it goes off to rise. Again the dough is turned out and *more oil is added and goes off for a third rise.

I rolled the dough in a rectangle, gave it a letter turn and it was covered to rest for 30 minutes.

Yay!! up to the shaping bit, place your dough on prepared baking sheet, and roll or press it out into a 9x15 by half an inch oval.

Measuring with my only ruler that has imperial measurements on it.  

More walnut oil was brushed on and dough was slashed into head of wheat pattern.  Using your fingers to stretch open the pattern.  

Final rise time now, about 15 minutes. Stretch open any gaps that have closed and pop the tray into your prepared oven. I sprinkled on sea salt flakes at this stage, love lemon, sage, walnut and salt combo

A great center piece bread for a BBQ or your Easter table. Full flavoured and delicious unadulterated.

A crispy crust plus pretzel chew, moist interior with a great walnut substance to it.  

Warm I found the bread a little oily, and unsuitable for oil dipping and dukkah (I tried)... I would like to reduce the oil a litte next time I make it. Plus I would like try replacing the milk with water or a milk substitute as this would make a great vegan bread to serve with with hummus and charred veg.  

Add a bottle of red and your all set. 

Happy Baking :) 

Today has been one of the 'Rose's Bread Bible Bakers' bakes where a group of fabulous bakers get together and bake from the pages of 'The Bread Bible'. The Bread Bibleby Rose Levy Beranbaum is available from Amazon and all discerning book stores.

Know a 'Beatles' fan? You might want to make an octopus's garden cupcake for easter, don't we all?  

The Browniest Cookies

                                    the browniest cookies

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Baking along with a talented group of bakers that are a part of ABC (Avid Baker's Challenge), this month is the 'Browniest Cookies' from Smitten Kitten. 

Like all brownies it's easy to put together, chocolate is melted with butter and sugars whisked in.

White sugar to creates the brownie crust and brown sugar to keep the cookies soft. 

Eggs, vanilla, baking soda and salt are whisked in next, followed by sifted cocoa powder. 

Flour is stirred in followed by chocolate chunks. I divided mixture in half and added half cup of fresh raspberries to the batter.  Both batters were then refrigerated. 

The recipe calls for the batter to be scooped, I rolled in smaller 25 gram balls and slid the trays into the freezer for 15 minutes to insure they would keep their shape. 

Resulting cookies are fudgy, with a thin crisp crust, definetly chocolately but did polarise the testers with the flavour.  They aren't overly sweet tasting cookies, but it was the touch of bitterness they bring with so much cocoa powder and unsweetened chocolate that some weren't keen on.  

I drizzled melted chocolate on the raspberry ones and added love heart sprinkles for Valentines Day.  

Tiny cookies won't crinkle as much due to chilling and the short bake time... about 6-7 seven minutes.

The recipe today is similar to Martha Stewart's 'Chocolate Crackle' type cookies that we have made every Christmas for over a decade. The other Martha Stewart cookies that are brownie/crinkle like are the 'Outrageous Chocolate Cookie' we also make for holidays. 

my step son made these brownie cookies for high school food tech in 2009   

Today's cookies are good, but won't replace the Martha Stewart cookies in our Christmas repertoire. 

Like a full cocoa flavoured cookie? get the full recipe for today's bake from Smitten Kitten 'The Browniest Cookies' 

Happy Baking :) 

You might also be interested in making Eric the Valentines Emu

Sacaduros 'The Bread Bible' Alpha Bakers

Sacaduros:  crisp crusted, soft interior dinner roll with a burst of salty butter. 

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“But he who dares not grasp the thorn Should never crave the rose.” -Anne Brontë

Dang, I had a "dinner roll shaping problem" this week. These little dinner rolls are Rose Levy Beranbaum's favourites from restaurant 'Daniel' New York. Thanks to the 'Bread Bible' I got to make them, firstly lets see what they are supposed to look like ....

Serious eats has a fabulous gallery of bread baskets in New York, including the bread basket from restaurant 'Daniel'. You can see the sacaduros front left, those round rolls were what I was aiming for. Mine didn't have the "petal like" pulled up sides you see pictured here. Even though I experienced "folding fail" the resulting dinner rolls are so incredibly delicious I can live with my misshapen little fellas.  

Here we go...

Three quarters of a dough batch from Rose's 'Basic Hearth Bread' was called for so I started by whisking together bread flour, wholemeal flour, instant yeast, honey and warm water for the sponge (dough starter). 

Bread flour combined with instant yeast was sifted over the sponge and left to ferment. 

Sponge bubbling through the flour topping. 

I used my Kitchen Aid to beat the sponge, flour and added salt into a dough then off to rise once more.

Cubed butter and salt are needed for the filling.

Fleur de Sel French salt: distinctly moist and often used as a finishing salt. 

I also made a flavoured butter by adding fresh coriander, garlic, chilli and grated ginger to softened butter. The butter wasn't whipped as in the standard compound butter technique but rather the flavourings were beaten in with a wooden spoon as to not incorporate excess air. Form the butter into a square and refrigerate before cutting into cubes. 

Time for pinching off 33 gram balls of dough (Rose recommended one at a time, I did four at a time... maybe my downfall part) and gently flattened balls into discs.  A half inch cube of butter and a pinch of fleur de sel on top of the butter are placed in the centre of each flattened ball.

And then I started talking about napkins:  I'm presuming the folds in the rolls were inspired by Escoffier's famous "rose" fold napkin technique, including "pulling" up pieces to form petals. 

Shaping the rolls; pull two sides of dough out and fold bringing them to the centre to cover the butter without squashing it down, then pull out the other two sides and bring to centre. Rotating the dough so a pointed end is facing you, repeat the folds.  Then in the written instructions there is "for the last two pulls, take only pinches of dough". The diagrams don't have this bit in my Kindle version. I was confused and also my dough did not want to stretch for those final two pulls. I tried to force it (yep, ok shouldn't do that) and ended up with my misshapen rolls that were placed upside down in a tray of flour. 

About a third of the rolls burst in the oven and the butter leaked, these were my "I bet I could stretch that dough with brute force" ones.     

At the end I had sacaduros with super thin hard and crunchy crusts that gave way to light and fluffy interiors with bursts of salty butter. Shaping aside these are the best bread rolls I have baked, so pleased with crust and interior texture. The long oven pre-heat and other tips within the book are yielding excellent results. 

Would I bake again? Yes, loved them. You could do so many different butters/flavours by changing herbs and seasonings. From a straight garlic butter to a lime zest black pepper butter, lemon and dill, black olive, or vanilla salt and butter to go with your scallops and white fish. 

Would I change anything? Yes, I wouldn't do the flour on top step, messy stuck in lipstick eating. Ha, ha if I folded them correctly next time that would be nice.  

How it works... joining the fabulous existing alpha bakers, once a month I will post about what I have baked from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Bread Bible'. I will be posting how it went and photos of making/baking the gorgeous baked goods.

Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible available from Amazon and all discerning book sellers. 

Happy Baking :) 

You might also be interested in Toblerone dessert in 30 minutes

Perfect Peach Galette Rose's Alpha Bakers

Splat 2 |splat| informal noun

  a sound of something soft and wet or heavy striking a surface: the 'perfect peach galette' from the 'The Baking Bible' made a huge splat as it hit the bench.

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Splat!!!  So went the 'Perfect Peach Galette', with it's fresh peach topping and 'Perfect Flaky and Tender Cream Cheese Pie Crust'.

I had the storage container ready for when the galette was cooled and lifted up the cooling rack to feel the bottom of the galette. Why I lifted the rack so high and so quickly I don't know, but there was "height and momentum" involved now.

The galette flew off the cooling rack and hit the edge of the storage container on the way down.

It flipped.

It broke.

It went splat!!!!  

So I scraped up some filling and plonked it on a tiny piece of still intact pastry... ta-da... and that's today's photo.  

It all started well enough I guess, it's still winter here so purchased imported peaches, American peaches to be exact *mental note to go plant a tree for carbon neutral ness!   

The peaches were put into a pot of boiling water (off the stove top) for one minute. I did some extra peaches in case I needed them.  

nude peach

Skins slipped straight off once the peaches were placed in a colander and cold water was run over them.

Peaches were then sliced, popped in a large bowl with sugar, salt and lemon juice to macerate. See all that juice? It was time to drain the peach slices of that juice. I got two thirds of cup of juice. 

juice was put into microwave safe jug

Butter is added to the juice and the mixture is microwaved (option is there to do it on stove top), until the juice mixture has been reduced to about one third of a cup.

reduced juice mixture

Reduced juice mix is spreadable... oh my, this tastes absolutely like the "essence of summer" or more accurately the "essence of peaches". 

The peachy concentrate was added back to the peaches slices with cornflour, almond extract and gently tossed together. 

all mixed and ready to be put aside so I can start the pastry

Here comes bad idea two but it doesn't include a "splat!!", I thought since we did this exact same pastry a few weeks ago for 'ElderBlueberry Pie (with not blueberries)'....  I'd use the same photos/text. Yep, then I forgot to take the shaping part at the end but I can redeem myself with pie apple coming up in a few weeks... fresh photos and shaping for that post :) 

For now here is the repeat of making the 'Perfect Flaky and Tender Cream Cheese Pie Crust'...

Unsalted butter is cubed and then frozen. You can make by hand or with the food processor, I went with the latter.  The recipe is a rough puff pastry with a cream cheese/butter combo (rather than all butter or shortening/butter or lard/butter combination). 

Your frozen chilled flour, salt and baking powder mixture is removed from the freezer and process it briefly the with cream cheese.

The frozen butter then goes in for a whizz, cream and vinegar are added and the mix is processed until the butter is the size of small peas. 

It still looks like crumbs, with visible small bits of butter... you are only using the food processor to cut in the fats/liquid. Remove mixture from the food processor in it's crumb form and pressed together, before wrapping and chilling.

Time to roll... the mottled look showing the tiny pieces of cold butter. I rolled mine between two lightly floured pieces of plastic wrap. Envelope folded, rerolled, chilling happening too! 

Ok I was supposed to have used a pizza tray but mine has holes in bottom and I thought it wasn't going to suitable. Instead I put a round of rolled pastry on a silpat, put the prepared fruit filling on base and folded edges over leaving exposed fruit in the center. Sprinkled sugar on dampened edges and baked. 

No serving suggestions or opinions on end product today... but umm the pastry was nice, light and super flaky... I could tell from the distance the flakes travelled over the kitchen. Looking forward to the next bake where I won't be lifting any cooling racks!! 

Happy Baking :) 

How it works... now I've joined the fabulous existing alpha bakers, once a month I will post about what I have baked from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Baking Bible'. This won't include the recipe due to copyright and publisher restrictions however, I will be posting how it went and photos of making/baking the gorgeous baked goods.

The Baking Bible available from Amazon and all discerning book retailers. 

You might also be interested in Salt and Pepper Squid recipe.

100 percent Whole Wheat Walnut Loaf Rose's Alpha Bakers

100% Whole Wheat Walnut Loaf 'The Baking Bible'

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Brrrr, baby it's cold outside! It's been hailing off and on all day and rumours of snow in a nearby suburb in the hills, I say "rumoured" because we do all get excited about even one flake of snow. 

Walnut bread toasted (grilled) aged cheddar cheese sandwiches and pumpkin soup with a hint of orange, the perfect starter to ward off winter chills. 

100% Whole Wheat (in Australia we say wholemeal) Walnut Bread is a fabulously flavoured versatile bread, lets get started.... 

I started by making the dough starter (sponge), wholemeal flour, water, honey and yeast are combined. To make a vegan bread swap the honey out for golden syrup.   

The mixture is whisked to incorporate air, it will resemble a thin batter. 

Time to make the dough now with more wholemeal flour, *gluten flour and instant yeast are sprinkled over the sponge starter forming a blanket of flour. 

An hour later and there is bubbles bubbling up through the flour. 

Ok better toast and break up the walnuts now, 166 grams to be exact are toasted in the oven and the then the skins are removed. 

Shhh, I cheated and used a photo of removing walnut skin from the Stilton Cheesecake story.

With the dough hook fitted on my mixer, dough is mixed and then rested for 20 minutes. Back to mixing now with the addition of walnut oil, salt and toasted walnut pieces before going off to rise.

The first rise. 

The second rise. 

After turning out the risen dough the dough is "dimpled" using your fingertips to get rid of air bubbles. The dough is shaped and put into prepared tin (I used four small tins instead of one large) and then off to rise for the last time before baking. 

Over half way through last rise, almost time to go into the pre heated oven. 

Baked, cooled and it's time to eat!!  

It's not the "prettiest" bread but boy served fresh with blue cheese and pear and it's a wonderful combination of flavours. Plus it's easy to slice thinly, like what I used in the aged cheddar cheese toasted sandwiches paired with the pumpkin soup today.

Oh, oh, oh mini loaves would make the best hostess gift, wrap the centre of the loaf with brown or baking paper, tie with kitchen string, throw in a chunk of blue or a bottle of red for a unique and welcome hostess gift.

This bread is also great for vegetarians/vegans, high in protein, low GI and perfect to serve with your favourite veggie stew.  

Also great "baker's treat"... toasted crusts of walnut loaf with French fine cut marmalade. 

Happy Baking :) 

*Gluten flour: we used gluten flour to promote rise and texture in today's bread. The gluten is in the whole wheat flour but the wheat germ is blocking the release so you use added gluten, a protein composite from wheat and related grains. This gives you not only extra "lift" in rising it also provides the characteristic "chew" we associate with bread. It's why you add various gums to gluten free bread trying to recreate the chew gluten provides.  Gluten flour is also used extensively in vegan and vegetarian cuisine to create seitan and in asian cooking for dishes such as like "mock duck". 

Would I bake again? Yes, loved it for "something different to serve" factor.. plus tasted great. 

Would I change anything?  I loved it as is, I would continue to bake smaller sized loaves. I'd like to try halving the walnut weight and adding either dried apricots or dried muscatel grapes for a fruit/nut loaf. 

 How it works... now I've joined the fabulous existing alpha bakers, once a month I will post about what I have baked from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Baking Bible'. This won't include the recipe due to copyright and publisher restrictions however, I will be posting how it went and photos of making/baking the gorgeous baked goods.

The Baking Bible available from Amazon and all discerning book retailers. 

You might also be interested in Amore Frangelico Truffles, rich in mascarpone and chocolate!

The Red Velvet Rose (cake) Rose's Alpha Bakers

red velvet rose cake with raspberry sauce, served with ice-cream

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What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

Romeo and Juliet  William Shakespeare 

I didn't have the rose bundt pan needed for today's Red Velvet Rose cake from 'The Baking Bible' bake, but I baked in anyway in the heritage bundt pan. 

There is a few different options for this cake colour/flavour wise, at Christmas I used beetroot juice to colour and the extra cocoa option.  Colour wise the resulting cake was a non descript "brownish hue". Today I went with less cocoa and red food colour.

Ok, I can see the appeal of red velvet for valentines, weddings or even Halloween but really "I don't get it"...it's not on my list of favorite cake varieties. 

Today's bake started with mixing egg whites, red food colouring and vanilla to combined.

yep nice and red

Butter, oil and sugar were beaten to fluffy. I liked this in the recipe, the taste of butter combined with moistness oil adds to cakes. A flour mixture including a small amount of cocoa was mixed in, then the red whites were added.

tiny amount of cocoa powder

resulting red batter once all the ingredients were combined

Whilst the cake was baking I was defrosting frozen raspberries to gather to juice to make a reduction.

The reduced juice was added to raspberry pulp, sweetened and sieved to make a brushing sauce.

This sauce has a threefold action of moistening, adding a lot of fresh flavour plus adding more colour. The sauce seeps into the cake after a short rest period. 

Cake after it has been entirely brushed with sauce. 

I served the cake with ice-cream wedges spinkled with freeze dried raspberries and grated chocolate. I made an extra thick raspberry sauce using the leftover sauce as a base. 

The cake has a great light texture, I loved the raspberry sauce. The red colour I found a little "frightening.

Yes, there has been a lack of other blog posts... oh my goodness if there is a winter bug in the air apparently I'm going to catch it!! Thanks Jacinta for the homemade soup, medicine, gift and the rest :) I'm sure that will make me feel better.      

Happy Baking :)                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Would I make again? No, unless family/friend requested which is possible, it's not my kind of cake but I have a family member who loves it. 

Would I change anything? Hmmm, don't know really red velvet by it's very nature of intense colour is difficult to flavour.

How it works... now I've joined the fabulous existing alpha bakers, once a week I will post about what I have baked from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Baking Bible'. This won't include the recipe due to copyright and publisher restrictions however, I will be posting how it went and photos of making/baking the gorgeous baked goods.

The Baking Bible  available from Amazon and all good book stores. 

 

You might also be interested in a cocktail, cupcake style with a Japanese Slipper Cupcake 

Classic Brioche Rose's Alpha Bakers

Petite Brioche Nanterre Loaves  : Classic Brioche 'The Baking Bible' 

Ban the Brioche Bun!!! Late last week our major talk back radio station called for a ban of hipster brioche bun hamburgers and brioche pulled meat buns. I don't think those people calling saying "enough is enough" with brioche buns have to worry, like the macarons before them the brioche bun craze has reached saturation point now McDonalds sells "build your own brioche burgers". 

Really I've yet to come across a brioche burger bun that comes close to home made brioche! With today being the Queens Birthday public holiday in Australia it's apt that I'm baking the queen of breads the classic brioche from 'The Baking Bible'.  This buttery beauty is a stunner, for me the aroma evoked the memory of bakeries as a child... oh and as Dad worked for Sara Lee when I was a kid, it kind of reminds me of a fresh soft version of Sara Lee's pecan danish. 

New to baking? There is a lot of steps in this recipe yet it's an easy recipe, most of steps you are "waiting" for the yeast to do it's thing. 

You start by making the "sponge" (a yeast starter), I made mine in a mixer. 

A flour mixture is then sprinkled over the sponge. 

Two hours later you'll have bubbles rising through the blanket of flour in parts.  

You'll need butter for buttery enriched bread, and here is what the rest of the world is perplexed about an American "stick of butter".  It's one hundred and thirteen grams for the rest of us... thanks Rose. 

Eggs and well softened butter are added and beaten in.

The resulting dough goes off for a rest in the fridge now, here I'm gently deflating before another hour in the fridge. Brioche, like other enriched breads has a refrigerator period to solidify the butter and make the dough easier to handle. 

The dough is envelope folded, rolled, folded and I forgot to take pictures of this bit. 

But I remembered to photograph when I wrapped my dough for it's overnight developing time.

Just unwrapped the dough here after a night in the refrigerator. It needs to be deflated a little before working with it. 

'The Baking Bible' uses a large loaf tin, I went with small individual tins.  I like the petite size, perfect for sharing and it does make really cute sandwiches for afternoon tea and the like. 

Smooth balls: whatever shape you are using, your dough needs to nice and smooth. Any fault in your dough now will show in the end product. 

Since I'm making Brioche Nanterre, there is eight balls in each lightly buttered tin to create the classic shape.  The tins are then covered with oiled plastic wrap and off to rise once again before baking.

I had enough dough to make four petite loaves. I used pearl sugar on two and left two plain.  There was a small amount of dough left so I made a few bite sized parisienne (Brioche à tête) with the classic fluted sides and "tête" (head) on top. 

Would I bake again?  Absolutely!! This recipe is incredibly versatile and can be used for sweet and savoury applications and yes, even for a batch of hipster hamburger buns. 

Would I change anything? Nup. 

How it works... now I've joined the fabulous existing alpha bakers, once a week I will post about what I have baked from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Baking Bible'. This won't include the recipe due to copyright and publisher restrictions however, I will be posting how it went and photos of making/baking the gorgeous baked goods.

The Baking Bible

Happy Baking :)  

You might also like a recipe for making your own honeycomb 

Double Chocolate Oriolos Rose's Alpha Bakers

                                                       double chocolate oriolos

Hmm, two surprises with my second bake as an alpha baker from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Baking Bible'. One: why is this cookie entitled "double chocolate" when the "chocolate" comes in one form from cocoa? Two: Never would I have guessed that such an unassuming cookie could be so feather light in texture.  

The light texture of the double chocolate oriolos cookie is bordering on ethereal, it disappears in a cloud of buttery cocoaness (not a word but should be)... pair with milk or better still an icy cold kahlua milk shake. 

Three:  ok I didn't mention a three... but I skinned my walnuts today, now this might not rock your boat but for me it was an "ahhh haaaa" moment. Many times I've skinned hazelnuts by roasting in the oven and rubbing the heated nuts between a clean tea towel to the remove the brown skin, but I had never thought of doing it with walnuts until I read Rose's recipe. The bitterness: it stops the bitterness you sometimes get when baking with walnuts. 

That's how the recipe starts, skinning your walnuts. 

Cubed chilled butter is processed through cocoa, walnut, sugar mixture until absorbed. 

The resulting dough was divided into three parts. Chilling is an important step in this recipe to ensure your cookies keep their shape.  

Working with one disc of dough at the time and keeping the remainder chilled, I divided and rolled 12gram balls of dough. On your lined baking sheet you press each ball with a flat bottomed glass/tumbler that has been sprayed with cooking spray and dipped in granulated sugar.  

Brush away any excess sugar on your tray with a soft brush before going into to bake.

Yes, they might look unassuming but these cookies are a taste/texture treat. I made a double batch as I promised step son Dan that I will make him bourbon pecan butter balls with a pulversied batch of these cookies. 

Would I bake again?: Yes

Would I make any changes?: Goodness, maybe a pinch of salt to accentuate cocoa flavour... but I think if you are looking for a plain cocoa biscuit/cookie these are pretty perfect as they are.

How it works; now I've joined the fabulous existing alpha bakers, once a week I will post about what I have baked from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Baking Bible'. This won't include the recipe due to copyright and publisher restrictions however, I will be posting how it went and photos of making/baking the gorgeous baked goods.

 The Baking Bible

Happy Baking :) 

Liquorice Lovers!! here is your ice-cream recipe. 

Pink drizzle isomalt how to... isomalt drizzles pretty and versatile sugar finish. 

Adriano Zumbo Packet Mix Macaron and Brownie Review

Adriano Zumbo Salted Caramel and Passionfruit Macaron mixes, plus chocolate brownie mix

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We love Adriano Zumbo here in Australia, the Sydney based patissier has been proclaimed the king of macarons by those far and wide that have tasted his perfectly pretty, often exciting macarons and pastry creations. 

Now we can have a little bit of Zumbo at home with the release of Adriano Zumbo packet baking mixes. 

I usually bake from scratch and I don't have that much experience using packet mixes so I called in a "non baking friend" to try out the macaron mixes.

First a look at in what's in the box:

 

In the Salted Caramel Macaron box (pictured) there is Caramel meringue mix, Almond meal mix, and Caramel filling sachet. Two piping bags are included, one for the macaron and one for the filling. Ditto the Passionfruit but passionfruit flavoured and the brownies contain the batter mix and choc chunks.

There is a template ring so you can mark out your circles on your baking paper. You can also go to the website and download a template sheet if you, ummm "can't find a pencil??" Seriously, a lot of thought and time has gone into developing these products, from the funky packaging to video web links to help you along the way and as for the macarons lets see what a self professed non-baker can do.

I was surprised how quickly my friend was able to use an electric hand mixer make the meringue (with cold water), sift/fold and pulse in the almond meal and then piped perfect macaron circles (I did ask about their piping technique and they said "I do watch MasterChef") and baked the following...

Goodness, how perfect are these shells!!

Here they are Passionfruit complete with filling and the caramel....

I know you will be tempted to eat them straight away (and they do taste great), but do try saving them overnight to end up with the squidgy authentic macaron experience.

Still not feeling confident baking macs... you always scan the side of the macaron mix box to watch videos.

Alternatively head over to Zumbo Baking where you will find helpful videos to assist you in your baking.

More of a chocolate fan? The Adriano Zumbo range includes, chocolate brownie and choc mud mirror cake (couldn't get this one for the review). 

A quick look at the brownies... you will have this mix together in a couple of minutes... hand mix with a spoon, pour into a lined tray and viola see what you get! Served warm with ice-cream for your next family get together.

Dark and delicious chocolate brownies from the Adriano Zumbo Chocolate Brownie Mix

Happy Baking :) 

You might also be interested in liquorice ice-cream

or Bundy Banana cupcakes with toffee toppers

Chocolate Chilli Focaccia

                                    chocolate chilli focaccia

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My Step son Daniel is in a world of pain at the moment as he remains sleepless and stuck in front of his Mac editing his end of year movie for film school. 

Though he could always swap career paths and become a chef... one of Daniel's fab recipes today. A chocolate studded focaccia with a little warmth from chilli and cinnamon. Enjoy :) 

Oh, and don't forget if you have a spare minute go push that "like" button on facebook to support a young film maker. You do want to see the promised trailer for a romantic comedy featuring beards don't you!!

Daniel getting some love from one of his actors in A Bearded Tale

Foccia Dolce (sweet focaccia) - Chocolate Chilli  Focaccia

Preparation Time 30 minutes 

Rising Time 30 minutes

Cooking Time 30 minutes

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

310ml (1 1/4 cups) warm water

2 tsp (7g/1 sachet) dried yeast

2 tablespooons caster sugar

3 1/2 tbs olive oil

450g (3 cups) plain flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes

1 tsp of salt

200g (7oz) dark chocolate cut into chunks

coarse sugar to sprinkle

Plus icing sugar (confectioners sugar) to dust on top of finished focaccia

Method

Combine the water, yeast, sugar and 2 tablespoons of oil in a small bowl. Set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 5 minutes or until frothy.

Place flour and  the sea salt, chili and cinnamon in a bowl… whisk with a wire whisk. Make a well in the centre and pour in yeast mixture. Use a wooden spoon to stir until combined, then use your hands to bring the dough together in the bowl.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Brush a bowl with oil to grease. Place dough in bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel. Set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 200°C. Brush a 20 x 30cm (7.87x11.81 inches approx) Swiss roll pan with 2 teaspoons of remaining oil. Punch down centre of the dough with your fist. Press into the prepared pan. Cover with a damp tea towel and set aside in a warm, draught-free place to prove for 20 minutes or until doubled in height. Use your finger to press dimples into the dough. Brush with remaining oil. Press the chocolate chunks into the dough. Sprinkle with a little coarse sugar.

Bake in oven for 20-30 minutes or until golden and focaccia sounds hollow when tapped on base. Serve warm or at room temperature, dusted with icing sugar.